CAREER & TRAINING by
The Energy Managers Association
Career in Energy Management - Fighting Climate Change in Nigeria
THE EMA MAGAZINE • ISSUE JANUARY–MARCH 2022
What attracted you into sustainability in the first place?
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I’m Kelvin Enumah, a Programmes and Sustainability Manager at the Wetland Cultural and Education Foundation, where I am involved in technical and vocational training, youth development, talent engagement, optimised operations, and partnerships in Nigeria. To describe me in short: my career is practically focused on mutually dependent goals of developing people to promote sustainability. I strongly think growing up and living in Nigeria is enough of a driver to go into the sustainability sector. I decided to study electromechanics at the Institute for Industrial Technology in Lagos. While studying, I started volunteering at the institute by designing and implementing campaigns and advocacy projects. We visited schools, churches, exam centers, etc. We reached and generated over 1000 contacts in all. We made presentations in schools
about the need for skills and the need for parents to stop the stigma against technical education in Nigeria. This stigma that is yet to be overcome is mainly a result of the unattractiveness of technical and vocational education in Nigeria. The budget for technical and vocational education is only about 0.2% of the national budget for education (and the budget for education is less than the recommended 15% of the federal budget by UNESCO). Industries are yet to embrace Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and the dual training system; hence very few industries fund TVET compared to the expected outcome. The national TVET pathway policy exists but is not being implemented, and TVET graduates are highly marginalised and at a disadvantage during application for jobs and further studies. The system is disincentivised and not dynamic enough to cope with its socioeconomic realities. These put together have disenfranchised many youths and families from towing this path. During one of my visits, I went to a pig farm in one of the local communities in the southwest of Nigeria, all dressed and hoping to impress the youth working there and convince them to acquire technical skills. After speaking on the benefits of TVET and all, one of the fellows asked me loudly if he would be paid to learn skills. I was awed as a fellow youth, which left a deep impression on me.
How did you progress through your career? As part of my three years dual training electromechanics programme at the Institute for Industrial Technology, I was equipped with a multiskilling technical background and mindset. I interned in the engineering department at Guinness Nigeria Plc., where I carried out electrical and automation duties in the silo, process, and utility areas. I also played the role of secretary for the department – in summary, I learned how to work with people and with machines. I also interned in the maintenance department at Leoplast Nigeria Ltd., a plastics manufacturing company. In both companies, I saw recycling and reusing first hand – this practically prepared me for the future. In 2013, I started working in a social TVET project as an industrial automation and optimisation trainer at the Institute for Industrial Technology. I trained young school leavers, university graduates, and industry workers in the use of hydraulics and pneumatics technology, electro-pneumatics and sensor technology, programmable logic controllers, and process control. Using my knowledge of industrial automation, I completed a building automation control project in 2014, which was the start of building management systems for me. I became interested and completed some Schneider’s Energy University
